Thursday, July 31, 2014

What a time we had at the Crowded Lobster last night! By
my count, there were between 25 and 30 attendees. I’ll wait and get the exact
count from Lydia later; I‘m sure she will let me know. She keeps up with this
stuff much better than I anyway.

I managed to get Jimmy Phipps to again ride over with me.
This allowed me remember exactly the stories he had already told and firm up
some of the details I may have inadvertently forgotten—after all, I did miss last month’s agenda. While we
were placing our drink orders several at the table suggested that Jimmy number
his stories so he only has to call out a number and we can recite back to him
our best recollection of the details, obtain our score and name a winner at the
end of the evening,

Because we had some stragglers last night, we were sat at
a table set-up for only twelve and when everyone had finally arrived, several
of us had to share seats and trade off taking drinks and bites with each other.
I, myself, was lucky enough to be able to talk Marlene Scanlin into cutting my
salmon into bite-size chunks so that I didn’t lose a piece to John Hughes who,
unfortunately was sitting next to me. Boy!! Can John talk when you get him started?
Trouble is that when you get him started, it seems his maker somehow forgot to
attach or wire up his “off switch.”

I’m pretty sure Geneva Patranella won the nightly award
for having the most people sit next to her. Everybody showing up late was
ultimately directed her direction and made to sit and listen for some 30
minutes or so before being allowed to try to find another seat. Come to think
about, it may actually have been Janice Patranella that caused this; just maybe
they were in cahoots!

I do believe that Lydia had the biggest entrée of all of
us. It took more than several plates to get all her’s to the table. I’m
ordering what she orders next time.Wish I had a picture of that plate!

Dianna got onto several of us for not responding to her 5th
of July email referencing “Upcoming Events.” It seems that we were supposed to
answer back by the 9th of July. As far as I can tell there are two “stiff”
penalties for not doing so: (1) We no longer have any say as to the month and
date of our 50th Class Reunion, (2) Dianna reserves the right to
take all the accumulated $$$s and travel where, when and with who she wants to
conduct the 50th reunion by herself or with only those she chooses.
Be careful how you respond to any requests for funds relating to the 50th
reunion between now and next summer.

To turn the scrutiny off her at the time, Dianna directed
the conversation to retirement and eventually to MediCare. Boy howdy! Did that
MediCare discussion go off in 50 or so tangents?Record keeping, doctor’s waiting rooms,
doctors themselves, billing procedures and even who had the worst procedure at
the cheapest cost. I just couldn’t keep up with them all. I am pretty sure that
if I had been given time I coulda developed a story that’d topped them all—I just ran outta time.

After all is said and done, even though John Hughes wasn’t
through talking, he was kind enough to reach into my back pocket to retrieve my
billfold so I could pay my bill. I wasn’t thinking correctly by that time (lack
of sufficient blood flow coming back from my lower extremities, and completely
forgot to check to see if I still had all my credit cards before leaving the
Crowded Lobster. Well, I guess I might be able to sneak my bill next time under
John’s while he is talking!

I did manage to get a few pictures but will have to admit
that Lydia took some of them because of the angle the crowd had me sitting at
the table—I just
couldn’t get an angle on everybody.

PS: You can tell which ones Lydia took very easy. They’re
the ones out of focus and with heads turned away from the camera.

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Book Cover - There's a Moose in the Guard Shack

Welcome

Discussing things that interest me or that I have an opinion on and want to share.

I have recently published a book on Leadership: “There’s a Moose in the Guard Shack” that entails a group of stories that took place to and around me during my career in the military and manufacturing arenas. The book details the true events and the lessons that I took away from them.

Often humorous, the stories remain as true as the day they happened—there’s a lot to learn from the interaction between leaders and the people they influence; knowledge often travels both directions.

About Me

Recently retired and taking
opportunities as they come. I have somewhat random thoughts on leadership, the
local Community and State un-governments, the National Government and about
anything and everything that takes place in the world that seems fit to be
commented on. Currently spending a great deal of time writing on leadership and
management and my life's adventures in both. I attend to an uncommonly amount
of family activities almost daily and whatever else comes up.